Ravanelli gave the Italians an
early lead only for Finnish star
Jari Litmanen to equalise before
half-time. The score remained 1-1
after extra time, but the Italians
won the shoot-out 4-2 with Edgar
Davids and Sonny Silooy being the
unfortunate players to miss.
Ajax appeared in two European
Cup-Winners' Cup finals in 1987 and
1988, They won the trophy in their first
appearance in the final when Marco van
Basten's 21st minute header was enough
to beat Lokomotiv Leipzig in Athens, The
following year they were bidding to become
the first club to successfully retain the
Cup-Winners' Cup but they were surprisingly
beaten 1-0 by Mechelen of Belgium in
Strasbourg, with Dutchman Piet den Boer
scoring the only goal early in the second half,
In 1992 Ajax got their hands on the
UEFA Cup which made them just
the second club to win all three
major European competitions after
juventus. Since then both Bayern
Munich and Chelsea have joined this
list. Barcelona are also, technically,
included in this group since they
won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the
forerunner of the UEFA Cup. In the
1992 final Ajax defeated Torino on the
away goals rule after the aggregate
score was level at 2-2. In the first
leg in Italy, Wim jonk and a Stefan
Pettersson penalty earned the Dutch
side a 2-2 draw and the return in
Amsterdam ended goalless which was
enough to win the cup for Ajax.
Ajax has won the UEFA Super Cup twice
and finished runners-up once. Their first
win was in the first ever official competition
in 1973 when they beat AC Milan 6-1 on
aggregate after losing the first leg 1-0 in
the San Siro, All six goals were scored by six
different players and talisman Johan Cruyff
did not play in either game, Their second
triumph was in 1995 and, again, it was an
outstanding second leg performance that
saw them lift the cup. This time they faced
Real Zaragoza and in the first leg in Spain
they gained a 1-1 draw with Patrick Kluivert
equalising 20 minutes from time, In the
return they ran out 4-0 winners with Danny
Blind netting two second half penalties to
clinch yet another title,
Their only defeat in this competition
was in 1987 when as holders of the
Cup-Winners' Cup they lost both legs
against Porto 1-0. In 1972 they faced
Rangers and though some people
regard this as the first ever Super
Cup final, UEFA would not officially
recognise the result as Rangers were
banned from European competitions
at the time due to crowd trouble at the
Cup-Winners' Cup final in Barcelona.
The Dutch side won both legs for an
aggregate win of 6-3.
Ajax twice won the Intercontinental Cup
which was played between the champions
of Europe and South America, The Dutch
first qualified in 1971 but declined to play due
to the violent nature of previous finals but
they did participate the following year, They
faced Independiente of Argentina and gained
a fine 1-1 draw in the away first leg with
johan Cruyff receiving a number of death
threats in the build-up to the match. It was
Cruyff who scored in five minutes but was
then kicked off the park and at half time Ajax
coach Stefan Kovacs had to talk his players
into finishing the match as they refused
to go back out for the second period. In the
return justice was done and Ajax lifted the
cup with a 3-0 second leg win but after such
a terrible experience they understandably
refused to play in the competition the
following season, In 1995 the final was now
played in Japan as a one-off match and Ajax
beat Germio of Brazil 4-3 on penalties after a
goal-less draw,
Ajax have 32 league titles to their
name, well ahead of PSV Eindhoven
(21) and Feyenoord (14).
Last season Ajax won the Dutch league
championship for the third year in a row
under Frank de Boer, They also achieved this
under Rinus Michels (1965/66,1966/67,
1967/68) and Louis van Gaal (1993/94,
1994/95,1995/96).
The Amsterdam side have also won
the Dutch Cup more times than any
other club with 18 cup final victories
again ahead of Feyenoord (11) and
PSV (nine). Ajax last cup win was in
2010 when they beat Feyenoord over
two legs by six goals to one.
Ajax's biggest ever win in Europe was in the
1984/85 UEFA Cup first round second leg
when they demolished Red Boys Differdange
of Luxembourg 14-0, What made this even
more astonishing was the fact the first leg
ended goal-less. This is the second biggest
win in any European competition, beaten
only by Sporting Lisbon's 16-1 victory over
Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus in 1963,
Their biggest away win in Europe is
8-1 when they beat HJK Helsinki in
the first round first leg of the 1979/80
European Cup. For good measure they
won the second leg 8-1 as well.
Ajax heaviest home defeat in Europe is
4-0 by Real Madrid in the 2010/11 UEFA
Champions League group stage, The biggest
away defeat is 5-1 against Bayern Munich
in the 1980/81 European Cup second round,
first leg despite the Dutch side taking the
lead, In the return Ajax were 2-0 up inside 18
minutes but the Germans steadied the ship
and eventually lost 2-1.
In tribute to their best ever player,
Johan Cruyff, Ajax retired the No.14
jersey on the great man's 60th
birthday in April 2007. He had two
spells as a player at the club (1959
-1973 and 1981 -1983) as well as
being manager between 1985 and
1988.
From 1934 Ajax played their home matches
at the De Meer Stadium but with a capacity
of just 29,500 they played all their big
European and domestic matches at the
Olympic Stadium. In 1996 they moved to
the Amsterdam ArenA which seats 52,000
fans and has a retractable roof. Last season's
UEFA Europa League final was played there
between Chelsea and Benfica, with the
English club winning 2-1,
Celtic v Ajax 11
